Franz Bittrich von Mannheim

Franz Bittrich, Graf von Mannheim (4 January 1731-5 December 1805) was a general of the Austrian Empire who fought in the Seven Years' War, War of the Bavarian Succession, Austro-Turkish War, and the French Revolutionary Wars. Made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1789, he was given an estate in Hungary.

Biography
Franz Bittrich von Mannheim was born in the city of Mannheim in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg (present-day Germany) to a Catholic noble family, originating in the city of Heidelberg. Bittrich enlisted in the Austrian Army in 1748 at the end of the War of the Austrian Succession and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in 1752 shortly before the start of the Seven Years' War. Bittrich served under Leopold von Daun in his successes at Hochstadt and a few other battles, and was made a Colonel at the end of the war. In this post, he also commanded infantry regiments during the War of the Bavarian Succession and the Austro-Turkish War. After the 1787 campaign in the Balkans against the Ottoman Empire, Bittrich was given the title of Graf (count) and the rank of General, and he took command of one of the Imperial Habsburg armies on the Rhine River in 1792 before the French Revolutionary Wars.

In 1793, Bittrich was sent with 19,400 Austrian and Hungarian troops to cross the Rhine and attack into the eastern borders of the French Republic, but on 10 December 1793 he was defeated at the Battle of Sorbey in a decisive defeat. Having lost 16,000 men, he was dismissed from command and died in Szombathely, Hungary on 5 December 1805.